Love of neighbor a’pair’ent through Socks of Love

Middle school students at St. Gabriel School stuffed “Socks of Love” with granola bars and toiletry items for area homeless, during Catholic Schools Week. (Megan Marley/Key photo)

By Megan Marley

KANSAS CITY — Plans are afoot at to distribute 130 pairs of socks loaded with granola bars and toiletry items to the homeless of Kansas City, thanks to the generosity of St. Gabriel School families. The socks are one of the quarterly service projects that get kids from the early childhood center to Grade 8 involved in serving the community.

“Every day for Catholic Schools Week it’s a theme, and the theme for Monday is ‘celebrating our community,’” said Principal Amy Hogan of St. Gabriel’s. “We wanted to do a school-wide service project that would benefit our community.”

Each grade brought in a specific item for the socks, which were assembled during Catholic Schools Week. Last year, students created similar ‘blessing bags’ filled with toiletries. This year they’re taking it a step further.

“We chose a sock this year, so that the needy of Kansas City would also get a warm and clean pair of socks,” Hogan said.

From families to educators, the tight-knit school community is going above and beyond. Teachers will continue the service project after hours, going out on the streets to distribute them with Diane Pickert, youth minister for St. Gabriel School and St. Pius X High School, who also arranges a monthly sandwich-making and distribution project involving students at both schools.

Last year Pickert took Principal Hogan out to distribute ‘blessing bags’ to the homeless.

“There were about six people sitting on the street corner, and I said, well, “we’ll just get out of the car here and they will come.” So we started passing them out, and we probably passed out 75 there in that one spot,” Pickert said.

“It was a little overwhelming, but it was certainly a rewarding experience,” Hogan added.

“We need them as much as they need us, because they keep us humble—they really do teach us a lot when we’re out there,” Pickert said.

Overall, the “sole-warming” project helps put Faith in action.

“Obviously being in a Catholic school, studies are important and we want them to learn about their religion,” Hogan explained. “But also here at St. Gabriel’s we want to teach them to serve others, just like Jesus would.”